Chapter Thirty-four
Denizens of the Deep
I finally found a building with walls that were mostly intact, and that we could hide in fairly easily without being seen. There was a good lookout spot by the doorway as well. It was also a reasonably safe distance from the chasm and bridge.
Naidaroe offered to take the first watch. She hadn't been injured, and while winded, knew the rest of us needed rest sooner than later.
I woke up feeling sore, yet rested. I did indeed have a bruise on my back. I went over to relieve Melima of watch. "Tawariell! Nothing to report!"
She was acting kind of funny, like something actually had happened, but she didn't want to tell me. Had something spooked her? It didn't matter, we were all safe.
The watch was peaceful. The glowing moss—or whatever it was—made it seem like there were stars above me instead of rock. Every now and then though I felt closed in, knowing that there was actually a ceiling.
I fingered the etchings on my bow. I had been contemplating a name for my noble weapon, and finally settled on one. Gûdtirith, Elvish for foe watcher or guard. It proved a powerful guard against foes.
About halfway through my watch, there was a sound of an explosion at the back of the cavern. The ground shook beneath me, and rock clattered to the ground for about a minute before all finally settled. Was that what had spooked Melima? I felt like she would have mentioned that.
I soon heard something clomping on wood, and rope creaking. Someone or something must be on the bridge. I nudged Keothi awake. "I'm hearing something, and I think it's the bridge."
He came to the doorway and listened a moment. "I say we go investigate the cause of this noise."
Ari'yasa and Sindus were also waking. We left Ari'yasa on watch, and Sindus decided to come investigate with us. We hadn't gotten far when I heard a thump behind me. Sindus had tripped and faceplanted in the dirt. I smiled sadly. "Maybe you should stay back there where you still can't see, but will be safe. I'd say you can keep watch there, but you can't really see."
Sindus rolled over and grunted. I guess he was staying there instead of stumbling back. Keothi and I made our way slowly down to the bridge. The statues started to congregate in one area, and we guessed this was where the woman had been staying. She must have had the ability to turn people to stone.
I kept an eye out for a statue that looked like a Gnomish paladin, but most of them seemed to be dwarves. There were also a few creatures I'd never seen before. One was really strange, it had a humanoid body, but it looked like it had the head of a squid.
We made it to the bridge just in time to see a party reaching our side of it. There were two dwarves, whose eyes seemed to be pure white, while their skin was dark like a drow's, and two large orcs. The orcs were pushing a dilapidated cart, but I couldn't see what was in it. They pulled to their right, the way we had come to the bridge, and stopped.
The dwarves looked at the destroyed statue, then found the woman. One of them stuck her side with a spear, while the other brought an axe and chopped off her head. They brought her head on the spear and stuck it next to the bridge. They seemed pleased.
Something was said that I couldn't understand, and the party continued up the slope, with the exception of one of the dwarves, who started to search the ground. He appeared to be following our footprints.
"I say that we try to confront the one that is alone and try to get answers. Maybe not now but with our party," Keothi whispered.
I nodded and motioned back to our hideout. We crept back to our friends. My steps were as light as they ever had been, soundless, but every once in a while I could hear Keothi's boot scrape on rock behind me. I knew the dwarves probably couldn't hear it, but it still made me cringe.
Sindus was still on the ground, and we helped him get up and back to the others. We related to those who were awake what we had seen. We knew that Naidaroe and Melima still needed rest to restore their arcane energy, but I was worried that Kima might be in the cart being pushed. We didn't have time to lose.
Ari'yasa told us she had a spell that would allow her to see in the dark, and Keothi suggested that we leave Sindus with those resting while the three of us went back to the bridge.
I agreed with him, and came up with more of a plan. "If you speak to them in Dwarvish, that might come off better than me speaking to them, as an elf, in Common. Our races don't tend to get along. Not that I've met many dwarves."
Ari'yasa agreed to come with us back to the bridge. Keothi led us this time, and Ari'yasa and I hid behind some ruins just before he approached the dwarf, keeping watch in case of trouble.
The dwarf saw the goliath and grabbed his axe in a defensive position. He shouted something I didn't understand, and even Keothi seemed confused at first. Keothi responded, his words sounding just a little different in sound.
The dwarf spoke back, sounding more like Keothi had, then shouted towards the wall. The dwarf was apprehensive, but they appeared to be having a civil discussion.
The dwarf became agitated at something Keothi said. He shouted in the most broken sounding Common I'd ever heard. "Show yourself!"
I looked to Ari'yasa and motioned for her to step forward. If I could remain hidden with my bow, Gûdtirith, I was going to. Evidently things weren't going as well as we'd hoped.
The orcs and the other dwarf had come back and were standing around the dwarf Keothi had been talking to. Ari'yasa left her hiding spot and walked towards the group. The Dwarvish conversation started again.
The orcs pulled out longswords and made moves to surround my friends. Keothi showed his weapon while talking. The dwarf shouted and raised his axe. The orcs started to charge.
Vines wrapped around the dwarves. One of them broke away with his axe. Keothi went after an orc with a solid blow to each shoulder.
The other orc came behind him and struck him in the back. The one in front of Keothi swung his sword at him, but Keothi ducked and hit the orc under the arm. The orc then came under and sliced into Keothi's chest.
I cast my mark on the orc between Keothi and I, on Keothi's back. I planted two arrows into the back of his shoulder, just where I wanted them.
The dwarf that had freed himself from the vines pulled out a crossbow, firing it at Keothi. One arrow hit his shoulder, the other flew awry, almost hitting an orc. The dwarf whistled loudly, then disappeared. The other one was still pulling at the vines.
I hoped that whistle alerted our friends. We were outnumbered, and that whistle may have been to bring them reinforcements. We seemed to be handling them well though, especially with me still at range.
Ari'yasa looked to Keothi, who was hurt pretty badly. "I command you to be whole!"
Keothi continued to pound into the orc in front of him. I could hear his skull crack, even from the distance I was at. The orc slumped to the side, and Keothi turned and pounded into the one I had struck. The orc slashed into Keothi, and I could see blood seep into his shirt.
Keothi sidestepped a slash and brought his hammer into the orc's side. They both looked pretty worn down. I hurriedly shot an arrow at the orc, but it hit his chainmail and deflected away. A second arrow hit just a bit higher, lodging in his neck. The orc fell sideways to the ground.
"Takes you long enough to get a kill these days," Keothi said. I ignored him and focused on the dwarf that was entangled in vines, setting my mark on him.
Someone appeared out of the corner of my eye, swinging two swords at me. I ducked away from the first one but the second sword caught my arm. It was the dwarf that had broken out of the vines. I shouted, "the other one is up here!"
He muttered something and began to grow, becoming larger than Keothi. I could see that the other dwarf was also getting bigger, and pulling at the vines. My concentration on that dwarf had been pulled away by the sudden attack, breaking the magic marking him as my target.
Keothi came around and behind the dwarf attacking me, flanking and distracting him. I took a half step back and shot my bow twice in quick succession. The first arrow landed in his shoulder. He pulled it out with one hand and snapped the arrow in two.
With his arm up, my second arrow landed in his belly. He roared in pain. I cast my mark on this adversary. A bright light appeared in the darkness, getting closer and closer. Several magic missiles blasted into the dwarf. Keothi's spirits rose. "Reinforcements are coming!"
The dwarf swung out at both of us, slicing us both. This large dwarf was starting to make me mad. He hit Keothi again at a shout from his friend.
I looked back, there were two more nearly across the bridge. We needed our friends to get there soon! I knew Melima was close, but were the others?
The cavern burst into light. Ari'yasa was smiling by the bridge. The dwarves all winced at the bright light that was suddenly shining on them.
Keothi used the distraction to his advantage, with two solid blows to the dwarf. His second blow hit his chest, and he fell towards me. I stepped out of the way as he crashed into the ground.
I moved my mark to the other larger dwarf and fired at him. I hit cloth, but my arrow bounced away from where I hit. He had plate mail on underneath.
Knowing this, I aimed a bit differently and landed an arrow in his shoulder between the plates. He turned as I ducked further behind the dilapidated wall I was standing behind.
Our other party members rushed in, Sindus firing off his shortbow as he ran. I breathed a sigh of relief. While we could have taken on these dwarves ourselves, having reinforcements was going to help a lot.
Ari'yasa was between us and of all of the dwarves. She took a beating from the big dwarf. The vines between us and the bridge withered away. The fresh dwarves finished crossing as Ari'yasa ran behind us, holding her shoulder.
A crossbow bolt flew out from behind us, hitting Sindus in the shoulder. I looked to see who had fired it. Naidaroe was running towards us with an embarrassed frown. It had been friendly fire.
I reached out and touched Ari'yasa, muttering a healing incantation. She shrugged her injured shoulder and smiled. It felt so good to be able to heal my friends. No one else was going to fall on my watch if I could help it.
Melima threw a lightning bolt at three of the dwarves. They reeled out of the way, their clothes smoldering. The big dwarf deflected an arrow from Sindus, but couldn't block a second one. We were gaining the upper hand.
The dwarves all threw javelins at Keothi, all missing pretty wide. I tried to stifle a laugh, the marksmanship was really poor.
Horns sounded from across the chasm, and dozens of dwarves gathered to watch the spectacle. If they all crossed, we were in for serious trouble. Fortunately, the light Ari'yasa created seemed to deter them from crossing.
"What did you do?" Naidaroe asked. She had been asleep for the entire discovery.
"Negotiations failed," I said. I really didn't know what had been said, but obviously they failed or we wouldn't have been fighting them. I gratefully remembered that they initiated the battle, we hadn't forgotten the lesson from the sphinx.
The large dwarf shook his head in annoyance. Naidaroe shouted to Keothi. "Just hit him!"
Keothi rushed the nearest dwarf, smashing him clean into the ground. He wasn't going to move ever again. I adjusted my position to get better aim at the large dwarf. Two more arrows landed between the plates, and the gaps between them were getting bigger.
More crackling came from Melima's hands, and a bolt of lightning ran across the large dwarf and over the bridge, catching the ropes on the side of the bridge on fire.
Some arrows flew in from the side, hitting the only remaining smaller dwarf. Sindus ducked down from where he had fired them and disappeared from sight.
The large dwarf started to run away and vanished. I couldn't tell if he had braved the burning bridge, or had gone somewhere else. Keothi took out the last dwarf, and I took in our surroundings.
The fire on the bridge was spreading quickly, there was no way anyone could get across at this point. Thirty or forty more dwarves were standing on the other side, watching. We finally seemed to be alone on our side of the chasm.
Ari'yasa left her light in the air where we had been fighting, and we took off, out of sight of the dwarves and out of range of the bows that I could see they had.
